Story

Chapter One

The journey to planting St Basil’s began in earnest in 2017 with a conversation between two families: the James’ and the Ursell’s. We each aired old, deep, hopeful longings not realising they were in essence the same: to see the farm become a place of prayer, worship, hospitality and creativity, for the sake of renewing the region around it. Pete James made a little vision video before we got going that tried to capture some elements of this, you can watch it on instagram here. Three years of praying and dreaming alongside a small group of people sensing a similar call from God – and constant twists and turns later – St Basil’s was planted as the outworking of that farmhouse-kitchen, Spirit-filled conversation.

Chapter Two

With the blessing of the Bishop of Exeter and the support of the wonderful local clergy already on the ground, in July 2020 the James family – Pete, Ana, Arlow, Kit and Everly – moved down from London and, together with a small group of faith-filled church planters, spent the rest of the year navigating the covid-19 pandemic and establishing the vision, values, culture and organisational aspects of the church. We ended the first term celebrating the Christmas story together with many from the local community.

Chapter Three

Easter 2021 saw us become a public church for the first time. Since then we have been on an incredible journey. We have grown in number – with the number of under 16s coming a particularly exciting aspect of what God is doing amongst us. And we have established a number of different ministries and projects that both disciple the community of the church and compassionately reach out to those in the wider community.

Chapter Four

Two years on from those first Eastertide gatherings, we find ourselves on the cusp of a new chapter in our story. We have grown in number, activity and expanse of calling to the point that the current home for the church – Windout Farm – can no longer be the base for our community in the long term. So, we are inviting the church into an adventure of faith as we seek God’s will for us in the longer term. You can read more about this here.